Public facilities such as restaurants, schools, service stations, airports, bus terminals, and many other facilities and businesses provide restrooms for use by their customers and the general public. In many areas of the country and the world, the public toilet facilities are not as sanitary as good health practice would require. Often, these restrooms are visibly dirty and, even when the facility has a general appearance of cleanliness, there is no guarantee that germs and bacteria are not present. Thus, a need exists for a cleaning device, with which a user of a public facility can clean the toilet before use.
The need for a disposable toilet seat disinfectant wipe is generally known. For example, Valente (U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,891) discloses a small sterilizing pad device for individually sanitizing a toilet seat. Valente discloses a device with a one-fourth inch moist absorbent swab layer for sterilizing the toilet seat, mounted on a slightly stiff cardboard upper cap having a raisable thumb tab for manipulating the pad over the upper surface of a toilet seat. Valente utilizes a disinfectant solution in the pad to accomplish the cleaning, which he recognizes must be quick-drying to prevent skin irritation. Valente does not disclose a means for drying the toilet seat incorporated into the device.
Sutton et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,081) disclose a disposable utensil particularly designed for cleaning and disinfecting toilet seats in public restrooms prior to their use. One disclosed embodiment includes multiple pads, one for drying and one for cleaning. These pads are mounted on a rigid handle which increases the length of the device to about six inches. Thus, the devices of Sutton et al. are of a bulkier design which is not readily carried in a woman's purse or a man's pocket or otherwise dispensed in a vending or paper towel machine. The use of a handle prevents direct pressure on the cleaning pad during use. Without the handle the hand would not be shielded from contact with the toilet. The handle is not readily flushable for easy disposal.
Accordingly, a need exists for a disposable pad for cleaning a toilet seat which provide means for cleaning and drying the seat before use and shields the hand from contact with germs or bacteria. The improved toilet seat cleaning device must also be inexpensive, compact, vendable, and, preferably, flushable. The present invention addresses these needs as well as other problems associated with disposable pads for cleaning toilet seats. The present invention also offers further advantages over the prior art and solves other problems associated therewith.